Two of my favorite things

I recently spent two weeks in Oman visiting a dear old friend. He indulged me and (surprise!) we did a road trip down the coast. ‘The coast’ is the Gulf of Oman on the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean. The Tropic of Cancer runs through the capital city of Muscat, where we began our journey, and the water was nothing short of tropical delight bordered by all forms of desert. I never knew there were so many variations in desert habitat – dunes, rocky plains, wadis (dry river beds), rocky ridgelines, scrubby- shrubby plains, scattered trees. We saw camels, both owned and wild, and frankincense trees–the power behind Oman’s ancient wealth and expansive empire. We explored the Arabian oryx sanctuary, and the sea turtle research center, went to the dhow shipyards, archeological sites, and industrial ports.

The return road from Salalah, a tropical enclave surrounded by mountains near the Yemen border, also went through desert. This stretch of desert, called the ‘Empty Quarter,’ lacked the bordering ocean, and we decided that the Empty Quarter, which runs some 600 miles from the Yemen border to the northern mountains, should be renamed the ‘Empty Three-quarters.’ There’s a town in the middle of this expanse, strategically placed because it’s in the middle of this expanse. Travelers stop for the night. No frills, but after a day of desert, and before a day of desert, it’s a welcome respite.

Photos more or less in order from north to south and back again…